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theses

Starbucks is known for writing their consumers’ names on their coffee cups. However, it is highly probable that in one day, more than a handful of consumers will experience having their name incorrectly written on their cup. Aside from coffee, consumers may receive catalogs, takeout orders, or products that have their name directly printed on the item. How does identifying a consumer (incorrectly, correctly, or not at all) impact consumption? In this paper, I introduce “marketplace misidentification,” which I argue, is a type of personal identity threat that is experienced when consumers are called by someone else’s given name (Brewer 1991; Hitlin 2003; Stets and Burke 2000; Tajfel and Turner 1986 for discussions regarding personal identity). In five studies, the effects of marketplace (mis)identification on consumption response are explored. Study 1a, shows that consumers who are identified (i.e., partially identified or identified) consume more (versus those that are unidentified). Study 1b shows that consumers, when identified, consume more, but when misidentified, consume less, and that the latter is mediated by feelings of disrespect. Study 2 shows that misidentified (versus unidentified) consumers engage in compensatory consumption. Study 3 shows that the negative effects of misidentification are strongest for those with lower levels of implicit self-esteem (Greenwald and Banaji 1995). Finally, study 4 shows that self-affirmation (Cohen and Sherman 2014; Steele 1988) mitigates the negative effects of misidentification on consumption.

ETD_7323

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Tracy Rank-Christman

doi:10.7282/T3RX9F8M

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.